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Will the Panthers and Oilers meet in a third straight Stanley Cup Final? (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
The puck drops on another NHL season on Tuesday, when the back-to-back champion Florida Panthers raise another Stanley Cup banner before hosting the Chicago Blackhawks in Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers are stalking dynastic status, and 31 teams — especially Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers, who have lost to Florida in the past two Cup Final series — will look to play the role of spoiler. But international rivalry between the United States and Canada, rekindled last season with two memorable games in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, will also take center stage in February when the NHL will break for players’ participation in the Winter Olympics for the first time in over a decade.
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Whether the popularity of Olympic hockey translates to bigger business for the NHL remains to be seen. It hasn’t in years past, but neither streaming nor extended labor peace was part of the mix then. In July, the NHL and its Players’ Association ratified a new CBA that will extend the harmony between the sides to 16 seasons, which would be by far the longest stretch without a work stoppage in the tenure of league commissioner Gary Bettman.
One major storyline, McDavid’s future with the Edmonton Oilers, was taken off the table Monday when he signed a two-year extension at a team-friendly discount.
Here’s a look at what to expect from the 2025-26 NHL season:
Sidney Crosby’s future: What once seemed like hockey’s safest bet, Crosby following Penguins icon Mario Lemieux’s lead and playing his entire career with Pittsburgh, is now the source of constant speculation after agent Pat Brisson went public with the possibility of a Crosby trade. McDavid, who has supplanted Crosby as the league’s top player, re-committed to the Oilers on the eve of the season’s opening games — assuring that the future of hockey’s most famous active player, now entering his 21st season, becomes the hot-stove topic between now and the trade deadline.
Depleted defending champs: The Panthers will try to become the first NHL team to win three consecutive Stanley Cup titles since the New York Islanders captured four straight in the early 1980s. They’re also attempting to become the first team since those Islanders to play in at least four consecutive Cup Finals. However, Florida’s vaunted depth will be tested in the absence of two catalysts: captain and top center Aleksandar Barkov is out 7-9 months while recovering from right knee surgery and Matthew Tkachuk, a brash and bruising winger, is out until at least December recovering from various injuries sustained in February’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
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Canada’s Cup quest: A Canadian franchise hasn’t claimed the Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. Since then, eight Cup Final series have featured a Canadian team, with more than half of them — the Vancouver Canucks (1994, 2011), Calgary Flames (2004) and Oilers (2006, 2024) — losing in Game 7s. The Winnipeg Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy with the NHL’s most points last season, and the Canadiens, Oilers, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs also made playoff appearances. Hope is high, but with it comes expectations and pressure for a team from hockey’s home to get the Cup back to where many think it belongs.
Original Six comeback: They’ve known the best of times, but last season was one of the worst for the league’s oldest franchises. Only the Maple Leafs and Canadiens made the playoffs, leaving the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers to play golf instead of hockey. All but the Red Wings changed coaches, with the Rangers making the biggest splash by hiring Mike Sullivan, a two-time Cup coach with the Penguins and bench boss for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. A decade has passed since the last Original Six team won the Cup (Blackhawks, 2015) and the formerly dynastic Red Wings haven’t made the playoffs since 2016. The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, haven’t reached the Cup Final since the Original Six comprised the entirety of the NHL.
Olympics return: The 4 Nations Face-Off provided the NHL with rare crossover success, but that was merely an appetizer. The Olympics men’s ice hockey event will include NHL players for the first time since 2014 in Sochi, Russia, where Canada won its second consecutive gold medal. Though the Russian Federation’s ongoing international ban will presumably deny all-time NHL goals leader Alex Ovechkin a last chance to win an elusive gold medal, the action in Italy next February should not lack suspense. Canada vs. America has become international hockey’s fiercest rivalry with gold medal showdowns in 2002 and 2010. Sweden and Finland might get overlooked by North American fans, but those hockey powers are always keen to crash the party. NHL games will pause Feb. 6-24.
Special attractions: The Winter Classic, the league’s annual New Year’s Day-ish outdoor game, heads to LoadDepot Park in Miami, where the Panthers and Rangers will meet on Jan. 2. A month later, the Sunshine State will host its second outdoor game when the Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning skate at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Also, Sweden adds to its record haul of NHL games outside North America when the Penguins and Nashville Predators play twice in Stockholm from Nov. 14-16.
Deals, history and dreams: The trade deadline is 3 p.m. on March 6, 2026. The league’s scheduled 70,000th game should take place in St. Louis, on March 13, when the Blues welcome the Oilers to Enterprise Center. The playoffs open April 18, with June 21 being the last possible day before the Stanley Cup is awarded. The NHL Draft will take place June 26-27 at a site to be announced.
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Sin City’s new act:The Vegas Golden Knights, all-in since their NHL debut in 2017-18, landed the top free agent in winger Mitch Marner, formerly of the Maple Leafs. A Toronto native, Marner leaves behind the pressure of winning in hockey’s so-called mecca and a history of postseason disappointment. He’s an in-his-prime point producer with a two-way game, and he’s joined a surrounding cast filled with players not too far removed from winning the Cup.
New sheriff in New York: Sullivan, a no-nonsense coach who connected well with Pittsburgh’s stars for nine seasons, will lean on ferocious new Rangers captain J.T. Miller in an attempt to quickly transform an aging roster into a Cup contender. The Rangers visit Pittsburgh and Vancouver in October, a couple of opportunities to re-establish a winning culture in New York by sending a message to former employers.
Fresh faces behind benches: Even for an NHL that is quick to move on from bench bosses, last offseason was busy. A group of nine new coaches includes the Anaheim Ducks’ Joel Quenneville, who returns four years after resigning from the Panthers amid the Blackhawks’ sexual assault scandal; the Dallas Stars’ Glen Gulutzan, back a dozen years after his first stint with the team; and Rick Tocchet of the Philadelphia Flyers, with whom he spent parts of 11 seasons as a player.
The next frontier: It’s all but a certainty that the NHL will again expand after successful launches in Las Vegas and Seattle. With franchise values skyrocketing, expansion fees could reach $2 billion. Owners don’t split that money with players, so the appetite is there for a league that lags behind the NFL, NBA and MLB in annual revenue. Will the league try Atlanta for a third time? Is Houston finally joining hockey’s most esteemed club? Fans could know by the end of this season.
Pending free agents: With McDavid and the Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov re-signing with their teams in recent weeks, the Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel and Jets’ Kyle Connor stand to co-lead a still-loaded 2026 free-agent class. Other Western Conference forwards, like the Colorado Avalanche’s Martin Necas and the Los Angeles Kings’ Adrian Kempe, will also generate big interest if they hit the market, with the salary cap projected for $104 million in 2026-27. Four likely future Hockey Hall of Famers could be free agents too: the Capitals’ Ovechkin, the Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky, the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin and the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin.
If this is it: Kings captain Anze Kopitar has already announced his retirement, so expect tributes aplenty for one of the best two-way centers of the modern era. Ovechkin and Malkin could leave the league together, which would be fitting given they were drafted first and second overall in 2003 and rank as the two highest-scoring Russian-born players ever. Other players, once stars in their prime, who could be candidates to retire after this season: Jamie Benn (Stars), Brent Burns (Avalanche), Claude Giroux (Senators) and Patrick Kane (Red Wings). A changing of the guard continues in the NHL.
In Bettman they trust: The influence of commissioner Gary Bettman is such that November marks the seventh anniversary of his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and there is no end to his tenure on the horizon. He has publicly scoffed at questions about his future or a succession plan. Bettman, 73, took over the NHL in 1993. His southern expansion strategy, roundly criticized at inception, has blossomed into Florida’s teams winning four of the five Stanley Cup titles this decade, and the NHL is likely to add its 33rd and 34th franchises before he retires. The cost for each franchise is expected to be at least $2 billion. The league has reported annual revenue of nearly $7 billion. It’s as if his third decade as commissioner is the icing on a cake he’s been baking, and he wants to lick the spoon clean.
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Meet the Mammoth: Utah Hockey Club’s debut last season was a rousing success that was missing only two things: a playoff berth and a nickname. It remains to be seen if postseason hockey will come to Salt Lake City, but at least fans there know what to call their team. The Mammoth emerged from a wild naming process that is still causing some legal headaches.
Salary cap in playoffs: The new CBA is a game-changer for GMs, whose lineups are forced to be cap compliant for every postseason game. That wasn’t the case for the last two decades, when the hard cap was not in effect for the playoffs. Gone are the days of a team circumventing the cap in the regular season by designating a player on long-term injured reserve only for that player to conveniently return healthy for the playoffs.
Fresh fits: A common shot for every hockey broadcast features players wearing suits walking to the dressing room after arriving at the arena. The images could look livelier this season. The new CBA prohibits teams from mandating a dress code and allows players’ attire to be “consistent with contemporary fashion norms.” This doesn’t necessarily mean suits and ties will vanish, only that players have options to get creative.
Sid and Ovi keep rising: Arguably hockey’s all-time individual rivalry, Crosby vs. Ovechkin is a matter of personal taste. But it’s undeniable that both icons are skating on rare ice. Crosby needs only 13 points to become the ninth player with 1,700 and with 37 will pass former teammate Mario Lemieux as the Penguins’ all-time scoring leader. Ovechkin needs 77 points to join the 1,700 club, and the NHL’s all-time goals leader is three shy of 900.
Big goals: Nashville’s Steven Stamkos is 18 goals away from becoming the 22nd player with 600. Toronto’s John Tavares and Detroit’s Patrick Kane need six and eight goals, respectively, to hit 500.
Points of note: Malkin (54) and Kane (57) are closing in on 1,400 points; Kopitar (22) is nearing 1,300; and the 1,000-point club could soon include Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (six), Florida’s Brad Marchand (20), and Dallas’ Benn and Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (44 apiece).
Coaching count: Only Scotty Bowman has at least 1,000 regular-season wins as a coach. Quenneville can join him with 31 victories in his first season with Anaheim. Detroit’s Todd McLellan will enter the top 20 among coaches with 16 more wins; Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper is 18 shy of No. 600; and Sullivan will earn his 500th with 21 in New York.
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TV/radio: The NHL is in the fifth year of a seven-year U.S. broadcast partnership with ESPN and Turner Sports. As in previous seasons, national games will air on ESPN or ABC and TNT or TBS. Canadian national games air on Sportsnet, Amazon Prime Video and CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” (English), as well as TVA Sports (French). Additionally, individual teams have in-market arrangements to broadcast games on TV and radio; specific information is available here.
The big ones: The 2026 Winter Olympics will be televised on NBC in the U.S. and on CBC in Canada. The Winter Classic will be aired by TNT in the U.S. and Sportsnet (English) and TVA Sports (French) in Canada. The Stanley Cup Final belongs to ABC (U.S.) and is split between Sportsnet and CBC (Canada).
Streaming: NHL Center Ice offers out-of-market games to subscribers to ESPN+ (U.S.) and Sportsnet+ (Canada). The Winter Olympics will be streamed on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com (U.S.) and CBC Gem, Tou.TV (Canada).
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An award-winning sports journalist, Rob Rossi has reported on the Pittsburgh Penguins and National Hockey League since 2004. He has covered almost 2,000 NHL games, including over 150 in the playoffs and four Stanley Cup Final series. He also has covered two Super Bowls and multiple MLB All-Star Games. He sits on the executive board of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and chairs its Pittsburgh chapter. He joined The Athletic in October 2018, and co-founded its Mental Matters resource group. Follow Rob on Twitter @Real_RobRossi
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